To stay competitive, manufacturers must embrace Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 embodies a range of technologies enabling machines to communicate with one another and boosting the ability of operators to monitor operations. Such technology is having an impact on tooling and workholding.
“People have to adopt it to be competitive,” said Dietmar Moll, director of business development at Zoller Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich. Industry 4.0, is needed “to get it done in a faster way, in a more efficient way,” he added.
“This technology movement has caused us to begin discussions with machine tool builders as to how to get communications between the tooling and the machine tool control,” said Preben Hansen, company owner at Platinum Tooling Technologies Inc., Prospect Heights, Illinois.
Platinum Tooling is the exclusive importer of various machine tool accessories, such as live tools, angle heads, speed multipliers, broaching tools, and marking and knurling tools, plus shrink-fit tools and machines from Germany’s heimatec GmbH. And, according to Hansen, certain forms of Industry 4.0 are applicable for tooling and workholding.
“We believe a digital tool management system that would communicate working parameters of the tools including temperature control, rotational speed, and vibration would help to optimize the performance of the machine tool,” Hansen said. “The sensors built into the tools would allow the customer to know what is happening inside of them, making it possible to tweak performance,” he continued. “In addition to increased performance, it could help alert operators of possible failures before they happen in order to prevent unscheduled downtime.”
David McHenry, engineering manager at Rego-Fix AG, Whitestown, Ind., has a similar perspective. “Industry 4.0 is based on machine connectivity, data, and communicating as much of that data as possible between assets and floor managers for data-driven decisions,” he said. “Acquiring and storing the data is critical to the process.”
Rego-Fix utilizes radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, which, according to McHenry, plays an integral—if not critical—role in the manufacturing process. “It’s no longer just about the embedded tool, it’s about asset management,” he said.
“By establishing the optimum parameters for a given cut and storing that on the embedded chip, the tool itself runs the cut,” McHenry added. “The number of hours on the tool, ambient pressure, coolant temperature and flow, vibration, heat, and humidity can be recorded for a good cut, stored on the chip, and read by the machine CNC. If any of the required variables fall out of range on a subsequent cut, operators are alerted before the part is scrapped.”
Related to Industry 4.0 is how collaborative robots (cobots) are increasingly used on the factory floor. Typically smaller than traditional industrial robots, cobots are deployed near human workers—rather than walled off as with older traditional robots—allowing for greater collaboration and support.
“From an Industry 4.0 perspective, it’s really about data and understanding process information and having that available in real time,” said Ed Volcic, vice president of industry management at Kuka Robotics Corp., Shelby Township, Mich. The idea is to use “that information to understand what your equipment is doing on the (factory) floor.”
Cobots “open the door to different applications,” Volcic said. “You can use smaller work cells with cobots. It allows operators to work side-by-side” with cobots.
“It is relatively easy to introduce robots into processes and, subsequently, cobots as well,” he added. “There is some level of planning. Cobots typically run slower. You have to evaluate … does a cobot make sense? There is a level of planning that has to happen.”
With Kuka’s cobots, the end of the machine’s arm interacts with tools. “Robots allow us to automate repetitive tasks, it is very repeatable,” Volcic explained, adding that cobots allow for a reduction in the footprint of the cell. “When you take a look at automation right now, with the shortages there are right now with laborers, there are many processes where it makes sense to bring humans into the loop.”
Other Industry 4.0 advancements are also expected to have an impact on tooling and workholding.
“Industry 4.0 is about recognizing how emerging technologies will propel manufacturing into a fourth industrial revolution,” said Lynn Loughmiller, DELMIAWorks senior automation engineer at Dassault Systèmes SE. “So it touches every aspect of manufacturing. Tooling and workholding are no exception.
“Simulation and digital twins are just around the corner,” Loughmiller continued. “Machine manufacturers have been using 3D-design tools, such as SolidWorks and Catia, to virtually test machinery for several years. Already, some machine manufacturers are supplying that technology to their customers by offering better simulations and virtual machinery.”
Loughmiller added, “Tooling and workholding companies will hop on board this innovation and provide virtual tools for these virtual machines. In fact, tooling companies have been using 3D-design methods for years and can now test those designs on virtual versions of the machines on which they were built.”
The development of Industry 4.0 for tooling and workholding has been in the making for decades. Manufacturing has been shifting from long runs of identical parts to shorter runs of more customized parts, noted Michael Ford, senior director of emerging industry strategy for Aegis Software Corp., Horsham, Penn., which offers MES solutions.
“This is not a fad,” Ford declared. “It’s important to have something more flexible.”
That’s where Industry 4.0 comes in. It means companies and machine operators need access to more data. In particular, they need to know more about tool wear and stress to minimize necessary maintenance.
“Industry 4.0 is being driven by business,” Ford said. “This is related to the business need.”
Technology also generates the need for data. “You can use it for many different things,” Ford said. “You convert data into value. Without context, data is useless.”
How does this figure into tooling and workholding?
“Collecting process machine data and feeding it into an integrated MES and ERP system can also provide important feedback to the tooling and workholding elements. Notably, correlating that data to part information can give indicators of tooling wear,” Loughmiller said.
“Understanding temperatures can also be very important when it comes to tooling,” he added. “Collecting that data in relation to the parts information can show a history of the cooling temps that work best with tooling and part materials.”
At Zoller, Moll said, “To utilize the data, you need a baseline. You need to define your processes to make smart decisions going forward.”
According to Moll, Industry 4.0 is a “clear plus” for tooling and workholding. “I break it all down to the machine tool. The machine should be making parts. We have to have the right tool life.”
For Rego-Fix, it all comes down to the numbers. And improved efficiency rules the day.
“Efficiency gains will vary, but RFID implementation has provided as much as 28% reduction in downtime and a 22% decrease in rework time,” McHenry said. “With those kinds of numbers, implementation costs can, in some cases, be recovered through increased production in a matter of months.”
But, he emphasized, shops must think strategically when employing any technology. “To take advantage of new RFID capabilities, shops should first understand their long-term directions and goals,” McHenry said. “What, precisely, does it want to accomplish? Is the shop ready to move headlong into sophisticated machine learning, or do operators simply need a text alarm when machine or operation parameters are exceeded?”
While Industry 4.0 holds a lot of promise, shops need to have these types of conversations and ask the right questions to make the best use of automation and digitialization technologies. As with everything else, they need to make sure it’s the right tool for the job.
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